Film Your Greatest Hits (and Misses) With These Action Cams

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Film Your Greatest Hits (and Misses) With These Action Cams

Kelsey McClellan

These high-quality 4K action cameras will survive nearly any extreme stunt, even if you don’t.

1. Garmin Virb Ultra 30

If you like to back up your brags with hard data, this is the hype cam for you. In addition to GPS, the Virb packs a barometer (for elevation), an accelerometer (for motion and g force), a gyroscope (for rotation), and a compass (for bearing). Collected stats can be overlaid onto the vivid 4K video. For more measurements, pair it with additional devices, from heart rate monitors to sensors in your car. | $400

2. GoPro Hero5 Black

It’s the Kleenex of action cameras, but deservedly so: GoPro’s user-friendly flagship model delivers top-notch footage. Images are bright and crisp, it has slo-mo and 4K modes, and it handles backlighting extraordinarily well. The palm-sized camera is waterproof without a case, and if you can’t reach the touchscreen, it understands a litany of voice commands (alas, not “Call 911”). | $400

3. Sony FDR-X3000

Overlook the alphanumerically bad name and focus on the features. Sony’s impressive action cam is one of the first with optical image stabilization (as opposed to digital, which compromises image quality to counter the shakes), and it works marvelously well, reeling out the smoothest 4K footage you can get without a gimbal. The camera is cat-eyed in low light, too. | $400

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